Ad of the Day: Everything’s Upside Down and Backwards in GE’s Delightful New Spot

May 22, 2015

GE claims to look at the world askew, turning it on its head in search of new perspectives that hopefully lead to new solutions. So, its latest commercial from BBDO, titled "Time Upon a Once," does the same.

Much of the spot—from the visuals to the narration—is upside down, backwards and generally topsy-turvy. This approach embodies the ad's claim that GE operates very much that way—innovating through creative thinking. And it makes for a pretty delightful and very rewatchable ad.

"Time upon a once, people approached problems the way same—always start at the starting, and questions the same asking," says our protagonist as he float-walks through a surreal version of GE's offices—and wisely leaving us a few seconds between lines to process what we've heard.

"But that only resulted in improvements small. So we step a took back, and problems turned these inside up down to approach them newly. And that's when we it solved."

It's a pleasantly offbeat journey, and must have been fun to write. And it's getting an inspired media placement, too. It will run break this weekend in cinemas ahead of showings of Tomorrowland—a movie that's also about imagination and surprise—continuing through the end of June. It will also run on TV and online from now until next year.

It's nice to see an inventive spot light this—which doesn't hold the viewer's hand—get green-lighted. But you will notice the sentences about GE solutions (from about 0:33 to 0:47) are the only ones that aren't garbled. Apparently that was the compromise.

CREDITS

Client: GE

Spot: "Time Upon a Once"

Agency: BBDO New York

Chief Creative Officer, Worldwide: David Lubars

Chief Creative Officer, New York: Greg Hahn

Executive Creative Director: Michael Aimette

Creative Director/Copywriter: Tim Roan

Creative Director/Copywriter: Levi Slavin

Director of Integrated Production: David Rolfe

Group Executive Producer: Diane Hill

Executive Producer: George Sholley